I make no secret that I am a fan of the Evil Dead franchise. I happen to prefer the later entries, such as Army of Darkness and the TV show As vs. Evil Dead. The first two films were amazing in their own right though, and I would like to discuss the second film in the series today.
Evil Dead 2, also known as Evil Dead: Dead by Dawn is arguably more horrific than the original in some ways, but also more comedic in some areas. Director Sam Raimi experimented with multiple camera techniques here in order to compensate for the lack of budget. The low budget actually works well in this film’s favor by forcing them to be more creative and the results show. The effects used in the film show that you do not need large amounts of CGI, but simply efficient and smart use of practical effects. There is no better scene in the film that illustrates this, than the laughing scene If this were made using large ammounts of CGI now, the results would not be anywhere near as effective as they were in this film.
There of course is a major reason the film was so memorable and that was the acting by its lead, Bruce Campbell. Campbell’s Ash Williams perfectly veered between a man falling into insanity and someone who was determined to stop the menace while not being the best person to do so. While it would not be till Army of Darkness that the character was fully developed into the man we all know and love, it was this film that introduced the elements that would lead to that depiction. Ash became a horror movie icon in his own right, with his iconic chainsaw arm and sawed off double barrel shotgun and this film shows how he became the badass yet inept figure he would later be.
The film is definitely not for the faint of heart as there is plenty of gruesome imagery here. The first two Evil Dead films were very much gorefests, and while Ash Vs. Evil Dead would have plenty of gore, it made more of an impact here, considering when the movie first came out. Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2’s success showed that there was no limits to what could be accomplished with a low budget film as long as there was talent and passion behind it. The movies succeeded because of the work put into them and the skill of the team behind them, and this is an important fact that many imitators have missed. If you want a true experience of low budget horror, check out Evil Dead 2!